North Shore mayor to run for Super City

Andrew Williams

The North Shore Mayor will not confirm or deny whether he did in fact urinate in public, but he is "sorry", anyway - particularly that "women can't have the opportunity".

Andrew Williams fronted up to media at the North Shore Events Centre today after reports of drunken misbehaviour were printed in a Sunday newspaper this week.

Despite calls from political opponents and Act Party leader Rodney Hide for him to resign, he said he would not only stay on the job but would also be standing for an unspecified elected office in the new Super City.

He was also considering legal action against the newspaper, he said.

"Today I am declaring my intention to stand for an elected position under the super city structure," he told reporters today.

"I have not decided in what capacity it will be, but anything's possible. I haven't decided."

Mr Williams repeated the "anything's possible" line when asked if he would seek the Auckland mayoralty, in which his opponents would include Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau City Mayor Len Brown.

He could instead seek to become one of the 20 councillors on the new Auckland Council, which will be elected in October.

Mr Williams said it was not appropriate for him to decide now what position to seek as there was still a great deal of work to be done in the transition to the new authority.

Support had poured in from across the country after the reports and the episode showed he was a "good Kiwi bloke", he said.

"I'm sorry. I apologise and it will not happen again," Mr Williams said.

"I just apologise that women can't have the same opportunity."

Last Thursday a Sunday Star Times reporter followed Mr Williams out of Takapuna restaurant GPK and claimed he had urinated on a tree outside the council buildings and driven himself home despite having drinks.

Mr Williams denied that he was drunk, saying he had "plenty of water".

The restaurant's owner, Dominique Parat, said Mr Williams had shared two bottles of wine between four people over four hours and there had been no problem "whatsoever".

But Mr Hide called for Mr Williams to resign, and Act Party secretary and Glenfield Community Board member Nick Kearney started a petition signed by five councillors and four community board members.

Mr Williams fought back earlier this week, saying Mr Hide simply did not like his opposition to the Super City reforms and Mr Kearney was doing Mr Hide's "dirty work".

Mr Williams said political opponents were also trying to undermine his work on leaky homes and a report he presented on Friday showing the Government stood to gain $2 billion from house repairs.

"It's the same old pattern. They can't defend the indefensible so they say, 'Right, let's get some of the heavies to discredit this guy'," he said.

This latest incident is not, however, the first time Mr Williams has been mired in controversy; last December, Prime Minister John Key revealed he was "exasperated" by Mr Williams sending him "aggressive" text messages as late as 3.30am.

Defence Minister and National Party North Shore MP Wayne Mapp said last year he had also received aggressive texts from Mr Williams.

"The Prime Minister is entirely accurate. I know that Andrew feels strongly about issues. Let us put it this way, if you receive a text that is largely in capital letters with multiple exclamation marks, you are reasonably confident that the person sending it is feeling particularly aggrieved about the point."

Mr Williams initially denied he had sent texts so late, producing four months of phone logs showing that the latest text sent to Mr Key had been at 12.17am on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, when Parliament was debating the second Auckland Bill under urgency and Parliament sat until midnight.

"Act is in behind this," he told Close Up. "They do not like what I'm doing to Rodney Hide. I'm putting pressure on Rodney Hide, as a result the messenger gets shot."

Later Mr Williams said he had been on painkillers after breaking his leg on a cycling holiday and it was possible he had sent messages at 3.30am but could not recall it.

- NZ HERALD STAFF